The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has disclosed that no fewer than sixty (60) Nigerian children under the age of five die every hour as a result of complications related to malnutrition.
The PINNS Project Assistant, CS-SUNN, Mr. Dare Isa’ac Oguntade revealed this on Monday in Abuja while analyzing the recent nutrition situation of the country at the commencement of the 3-day capacity building training organized by CS-SUNN to sharpen journalist’s capacity in reporting nutritional issues in the country.
He disclosed that at least two thousand (2000) under-five children besides 145 women die every day due to imbalance in their dietary intake, blaming the phenomenon on poor budgetary allocation by the government on nutrition.
He described nutrition as one of the major developmental challenges currently confronting the country, urging the government to scale up effort to addressing the menace.
He expressed concern over the rising cases of severe malnutrition in Kano state, revealing that 58% of malnourished children in the state are currently at risk of stunting.
Stunting which is a health condition in which a child is perceived to be too short for his or her age is said to be accompanied with poor brain development.
Speaking on Nigerian nutrition funding, the Project Manager of the organization, Mr. Sunday Okoronkwo attributed about 53% of deaths from child killer diseases to malnutrition thereby calling on government at state and national levels to be proactive in handling nutritional issues, emphasizing that “vaccinating malnourished child is a waste because their immune system can no longer convert the vaccine to fight the diseases”.
CS-SUNN is a coalition of non-governmental organizations pushing for nutrition security of Nigerian children.
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